Virtues of Defects

For centuries, physicists have described how the universe functions based on observations of the natural world taken at a specific time and place. But increasingly, physicists have found that certain probes of the universe are not local to one place or time. Known as nonlocal observables or defects, these extend across regions of space-time of various dimensions and are ubiquitous in quantum mechanics and gravity. The Simons Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of the Simons Collaboration on the Virtues of Defects, a multidisciplinary community exploring nonlocal observables in physics.